~ A Journal of Democracy and Public Affairs

Spook Base

In every war there are military bases where activities are so secret that few people outside the base know what goes on there. These bases have a mystique, a hint of strange comings and goings, rumors of covert organizations that are a cover for even more covert organizations. ~ “Spook Base” in Robert Coram’s biography of John Boyd

That sounds like Washington DC over the last two generations to me! Our own capital city is a spook base!

Even more significant, more and more evidence indicates the government has undertaken a war on its own people. Its reaction to the non-violent Occupy movement is an early example. More recently, its imposition of martial law on Boston after the Marathon bombing makes you think we are losing our democracy faster than anyone could have anticipated. “Boston Strong” welcomed this invasion of tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters, and armed soldiers! Boston, the seat of our nation’s revolution, said “Thank you” when it was all over!

Marker to guide visitors on Boston’s Freedom Trail.

Remember, too, that the soldiers, tanks, and helicopters left when it was time for supper, hours before local police arrested Dzokhar Tsarnaev. The show of force was for the benefit of Bostonians and everyone else watching all over the country. It wasn’t to protect Boston or to catch the fugitive. If that were the case, all those assets, as the military people like to call them, would have stayed until the crisis was over.

When will Boston, home of the original Tea Party and a symbol of civil resistance, become a spook base? When will your own city attain that mystique? Will your city welcome the spooks and their armed guards, as Boston did?